H-1B financial guide: your first year

The H-1B petition is your employer’s paperwork. The money side is yours, and it has a shape no other job has: your right to stay in the country is tied to one paycheck from one employer. Almost every decision below comes back to that.

USCIS grants H-1B status for up to three years at a time, generally to a six-year maximum, with extensions beyond six years for workers far enough along in the green card process. Long enough to build real savings and credit; short enough that every plan needs an answer to “what if I have to leave?”

Before you land: cash to bridge the gap to your first paycheck

US payroll usually runs every two weeks or twice a month and pays in arrears, so your first deposit can land several weeks after you start. Relocation money is often a reimbursement: you pay first and claim later. Bring enough for temporary housing, first month’s rent and a security deposit (landlords may ask for more from someone with no US credit history), furniture, transport, and a month of household costs.

Move the money by transfer rather than in your luggage: currency and monetary instruments totaling more than $10,000 must be declared to US Customs and Border Protection on entry. A sign-on or relocation bonus is taxed like salary and often has a clawback if you leave early.

Week one or two: your Social Security number

First, download your I-94 record from the CBP website and check that it shows H-1B and an admit-until date matching your approval notice. SSA recommends waiting about 10 days after arrival before applying, so it can verify your documents with DHS electronically. Start the application online, then finish in person at a Social Security office with your passport and I-94, bringing your Form I-797 approval notice too. You can start work before the number arrives — SSA says nothing prevents it — so tell payroll you have applied. If you already got an SSN as an F-1 student, it is yours for life.

Opening a bank account, with or without an SSN

Open a checking account for direct deposit and a separate savings account for your emergency fund. You may not need to wait for the SSN: federal customer-identification rules let a bank accept a passport number from a non-US person in place of a taxpayer ID, but each bank sets its own policy. Bring your passport, I-94, I-797 or offer letter, and proof of a US address. Add your SSN when it arrives, and when your tax status changes, swap the bank’s Form W-8BEN (nonresident) for a W-9 (resident). See banking for newcomers for account types and fees.

Your first payslip: W-4, income tax, and FICA

Check every line of your first payslip; two of them work differently on a visa.

Withholding

Form W-4 sets your federal withholding. If you will be a nonresident alien for the year — common if you arrive late in the year or switch from F-1 on October 1 — follow IRS Notice 1392: check “Single or Married filing separately” whatever your actual status, write “NRA” below Step 4(c), and do not claim exemption; payroll then adds an extra amount to your wages when it calculates withholding. Bonuses and RSU vests are often withheld at a flat supplemental rate that can be below your real bracket, so set money aside if much of your pay arrives that way.

Social Security and Medicare

There is no FICA exemption on H-1B. You pay 6.2% Social Security tax on wages up to an annual cap and 1.45% Medicare tax on all wages, your employer pays a matching amount, and a 0.9% Additional Medicare Tax is withheld once your wages for the year pass $200,000. If you came from F-1 OPT, the student exemption ends when H-1B status begins; if FICA was taken from pay you earned while still an exempt student, ask your employer to refund it. FICA is not refunded when you leave the US, but the work credits stay on your record. Estimate take-home pay with the H-1B tax calculator and read H-1B taxes explained for state tax.

Benefits enrollment: the deadline most new hires miss

New hires usually get a short window — often around 30 days — to choose benefits. Miss it and you generally wait for annual open enrollment unless a qualifying life event, such as marriage or a birth, reopens it. Department of Labor rules require an H-1B employer to offer you benefits on the same basis as similarly employed US workers.

Health, disability, and life cover

Add your spouse and children to your medical plan now; adding them later usually takes a qualifying event (see health insurance for newcomers). Take any employer disability cover: on an H-1B, both your income and your status depend on working. Group life cover usually ends with the job; if anyone depends on you, read life insurance on a visa.

The 401(k) and the match

Your visa does not limit 401(k) participation. Contribute at least enough to collect the full employer match from your first eligible paycheck. Your own contributions are always 100% yours; the match may vest over time — federal law caps matching schedules at a three-year cliff or a six-year graded schedule — and anything unvested is forfeited if you leave, so know your vesting date before you resign. If the plan enrolls you automatically, check the default rate and investment. Before choosing pre-tax or Roth contributions, read what happens to your 401(k) if you leave the US.

HSA and FSA

A health savings account requires a high-deductible health plan. Contributions go in before federal income tax, the balance rolls over, and the account stays yours if you change jobs or leave the country — though California and New Jersey tax contributions at state level. A health FSA is use-it-or-lose-it, and any balance is usually forfeited when you leave the employer. A dependent care FSA generally requires both spouses to work or one to be a full-time student, which usually rules it out while an H-4 spouse cannot work.

Building credit from zero

Your credit history at home does not follow you, and a thin US file means bigger deposits on apartments, utilities, and phones. Once you have an SSN, open a secured or starter card, put one small recurring bill on it, pay in full automatically, keep the balance low, apply for new credit sparingly, and keep that first card open. The most widely used scores need roughly six months of reported history, so a usable score arrives mid-year. Insurers may not count a foreign driving record either, so compare auto insurance for new arrivals early. The full sequence is in how to build US credit as an immigrant.

An emergency fund sized for the 60-day grace period

If your employment ends — whether you resign or are let go — immigration rules generally give you a grace period of up to 60 consecutive days, or until your authorized stay ends if that comes sooner, during which you can keep your status. It is available once per authorized validity period, DHS can shorten it at its discretion, you cannot work during it, and it ends if you leave the US.

Within that window a new employer can file an H-1B petition for you, or you can apply to change to another status — H-4 if your spouse holds H-1B, for example — or you depart. If a qualifying petition or application is filed in time, your stay can run past 60 days while it is pending. The conditions matter, so if your job looks at risk, speak to an immigration attorney before your last day. Size the fund for that clock: rent and bills for at least 60 days, ideally three months; COBRA premiums if you keep your employer health plan, which usually means paying the full cost yourself; an attorney consultation; and one-way flights home for the household.

If your employer dismisses you before the end of your approved period, it is liable for the reasonable cost of your return transportation abroad — generally understood as your own fare, not your family’s — but not if you resign. And if it keeps you on with no work, Department of Labor rules generally require it to keep paying your required wage. Keep the fund in insured savings, not in shares.

Your H-4 spouse: work, taxes, and paperwork

An H-4 spouse can work only with an H-4 Employment Authorization Document, and eligibility turns on your case: you must be the principal beneficiary of an approved Form I-140 immigrant petition, or hold H-1B status extended beyond six years under the AC21 green card provisions. Your spouse files Form I-765 and cannot start work until the EAD is in hand. For most couples in year one, budget on one income; the green card financial guide covers what changes later.

An H-4 spouse counts days under the substantial presence test just as you do, so they usually become a tax resident on the same timeline. A joint return needs a taxpayer ID for both of you. Without work authorization your spouse generally cannot get an SSN, so they apply for an ITIN on Form W-7, usually attached to your first joint return — see the ITIN guide.

Sending money home

A bank wire at the default exchange rate is often the most expensive channel. US rules require most providers to show the fees, exchange rate, and amount that will arrive before you pay, so compare with the remittance fee calculator and see send money abroad for the options.

Fund transfers from a bank account or a US-issued card: since January 1, 2026, a 1% federal excise tax applies to remittances paid for with cash, a money order, a cashier’s check, or a similar physical instrument. Money coming the other way has its own rule: once you are a US tax resident, gifts from family members who are not US persons totaling more than $100,000 in a year must be reported on Form 3520 — a disclosure, not a tax, with steep penalties for skipping it.

Tax residency in year one, and accounts back home

The IRS sets your tax status by days, not by visa. The substantial presence test counts all your days this year, a third of last year’s, and a sixth of the year before’s; 183 or more, with at least 31 this year, makes you a resident. H-1B days count from arrival; F-1 days generally do not during your first five calendar years as a student.

Arrive in the first half of the year and stay, and residency starts on your first day in the US, with a nonresident period before it. That dual-status year means no standard deduction and no joint return, unless you and your spouse elect to be treated as residents for the whole year — which brings that year’s worldwide income into US tax. Arrive later, or switch from F-1 on October 1, and you are usually a nonresident for the year, though the first-year choice in IRS Publication 519 can make you a resident for part of it. Check your dates with the substantial presence calculator and read resident vs nonresident for tax purposes; if you are switching from student status, see the F-1 financial guide too.

Once you are a resident, income at home — interest, rent, dividends, gains — is US-taxable, with foreign tax credits for tax paid there. Interest that is tax-free at home, such as on an Indian NRE deposit, still goes on your US return. Every foreign account you own or can sign on becomes reportable: on the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) once they total more than $10,000 at any point in the year, due April 15 with an automatic extension to October 15; and on Form 8938 under FATCA, which has higher thresholds that depend on filing status. Read the FBAR guide and the FATCA guide before your first filing season.

Investing on a visa

Take the full 401(k) match, build the emergency fund, then invest the rest. Passive investing — shares, funds, a rental property — is generally compatible with H-1B status; running a business or doing paid work outside your sponsored job is not, so ask an immigration attorney if a side project starts to look like work. Roth IRA eligibility depends on taxable compensation and an income limit that changes every year, not on your visa, though a married nonresident filing separately who lived with their spouse is effectively shut out. The Roth IRA guide for H-1B holders has the detail. Be wary of buying funds registered in your home country: US tax treats many as passive foreign investment companies, with punitive tax and an annual Form 8621. More in investing on a visa.

If you leave the US: what happens to your money

• 401(k). The vested balance stays yours. You can usually leave it in the plan, roll it to an IRA or a new US employer’s plan, or cash out — which means income tax plus a 10% additional tax if you are under 59½, and once you are a nonresident the plan generally withholds 30% unless a treaty lowers it.
• Roth IRA. Your contributions, though not the earnings, can come out at any time without US tax or penalty.
• HSA and Social Security. The HSA stays yours for qualified medical costs; your work credits stay on your record.
• Bank accounts and taxes. Keep one US account open for your final paycheck, tax refund, and any 401(k) payout. The departure year is usually dual-status again, and Publication 519 explains the departure clearance — the “sailing permit” — that departing aliens generally need, with some exceptions.

Your first-year checklist

1. Arrive with cash for deposits and the weeks before your first paycheck.
2. Check your I-94; apply for your SSN about 10 days after arrival.
3. Open checking and savings; complete your W-4 and check your first payslip.
4. Enroll in benefits within the window; take the full 401(k) match.
5. Open a secured or starter card and automate full payment.
6. Build an emergency fund for the 60-day window plus flights home.
7. If your spouse is on H-4, check EAD eligibility and plan their ITIN.
8. Work out your residency start date; list foreign accounts for FBAR and FATCA.

Where to go deeper

This guide is the overview. Each of these covers one piece of it in detail:

• H-1B visa requirements, fees and timeline — if you are still going through the petition process.
• H-1B taxes explained — withholding, FICA, and state tax in depth.
• L-1 financial guide — the same first-year plan for intracompany transferees.